Massimiliana Tomaselli has been living in Malta with her husband Mauro for many, many years. She is the President of the Malta branch of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina. I got an email recently from their mountain abode in Italy: "With all that is happening these days, all over the world, one loses connection with time, and I realised that we haven't been in touch for a while.
On the breaking out of the virus Mauro and I left Malta and took refuge in our flat in the mountains in Italy.
Once here, I immediately started to get organised to face the emergency that I saw coming. I bought a freezer and filled it with all sorts of food mainly basic survival supplies like flour, eggs, yeast, pasta and rice; I cooked fresh vegetables, turning them into delicious sauces for our pasta and bought enough medicines to last till the end of June.
Everybody thought I was fussing too much, but unfortunately in my paranoia I was right because very soon the virus spread everywhere and very aggressively, making it difficult for people to move and get food in the supermarkets. They still have to queue for hours before they can get in, earlier on in the cold and now in the heat.
Where we are there are very few inhabitants and they are very disciplined. They stay inside and when they go out they wear a mask and keep their distance, so we are fine for the time being.
The flat is small but very comfortable. We have a terrace overlooking the mountains and when there is sunshine we can enjoy our lunch outside. We find comfort in a very simple routine made up of small things and try to take advantage of this forced inactivity to indulge in that laziness that we can never afford in normal times. It would be perfect if it weren't for the sad news that reaches us through the various media.
The BIG worry is for the people I love and are so far away from me... I would like to have everybody under my supervision and make sure that they are doing well... this includes you my dear friend.
Our daughter Maria Vittoria and her husband Filip are in Kasakhstan and locked indoors like everybody else in this sick world. They are fine and 'smart' working. I hope they won't be affected by the epidemic as much as we are. Anyway, there's not much we can do, we can just pray for this monster to be defeated as soon as possible and to comply with the rules.
Dear Marie, let's hope we can still have some pleasant times together in Malta in the autumn... cross fingers.
Let me have some news.
One of my grandchildren, eight-year-old Maya, is happy to be at home with her parents and brother Harry, her mother trying out new Ottolenghi recipes. Maya loves dressing up and every night she prepares what she is going to wear on the morrow to sit in front of her computer for her school lessons. I am quite the opposite and only too happy to wear my most comfortable loose clothing and simply sound dressed when someone calls on the phone. What bliss. Sometimes, as soon as I get out of bed, I must look like something out of Dante's Inferno but there is no one to recoil in horror except myself.
Maya sent me an emoji she made of herself and a drawing and commented thus on her days in quarantine: "I spend my mornings online and participate in school lessons, which I enjoy. Some mornings I go for a walk with my mother and we have been discovering new places in the countryside, away from everyone. In the afternoon, once lunch and lessons are over, I chat to my friends and family on Facetime. I sometimes paint and sew new clothes for my Barbies.
What I miss most are seeing my family and friends and dancing lessons. I love ballet, my favourite activity. From time to time I say to myself 'these are such strange times.'
All over the world many doctors have died caring for their patients and my painting depicts a medical doctor who seized the opportunity for a five minute nap on the first surface she could find - a wheelchair.
This painting is my small tribute to all these wonderful people.
It's a little late to talk about Easter lunch but I know you are sitting on the edge of your seats wondering how the Oldies in our family managed to have a decent Meals-on Wheels lunch in these days of social distancing.
Well, sister No 2 who lives in the same block volunteered to do the cooking. I breathed a sigh of relief. I was to produce the dessert, sister No 3 her legendary figolla and chocs and brother and wife came up with all sorts of delicacies to jolly up the day.
Sister No 2 cooked suckling pig which we love, with the usual roast potatoes and veg. She brought mine up in her second best china. She lives one floor down.
Sister No 3 sent her son with the goodies and he took their lunch back home. Brother and sister-in-law have their garage right underneath our home chef's balcony so food was exchanged with the traditional qoffa on a rope doing the hard work. They asked me to postpone my apple strudel for another get together as there was already too much to eat.
I forgave our chef all past transgressions after such a satisfying meal but to forgive any future transgressions she is going to have to come up with another one. Forgiveness has never come cheap.
I ate my apple strudel, little by little, during the week which cheered up my solitary confinement. This sort of thing cannot be postponed. Not at this age or with this virus around.
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